Coin sorting machine



Jan- 2, 1968 E. WEISSKOPF 3,361,141

' com SOR'IING MACHINE Filed March 28, 1966 '7 Sheets-Sheet 1 /nvenior 2H? 57 Q/e/s 5 (op/ Jan. 2, 1968 E. WEISSKOPF 3,36 Y

COIN SORTING MACHINE Filed March 28, 1966 '7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor 5/11 57 f/e/ss C 7 3811- 1963 E. WEISSKOPF 3,36

COIN SORTING MACHINE Filed March 28, 1966 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 lnvenior Zrnsf a/e/sj Va vf Jan. 2, 1968 E. WEISSKOPF 3,

COIN SORTING MACHINE 7 Filed March 28, 1966 '7 Sheets-Sheet 5 lnven for Jan. 2, 1968 E. WEISSKOPF I COIN SORTING MACHINE Filed March 28, 1966 Inventor in; 5 l/efsis F'a af' 'T Sheets-Sheec 6 United States Patent 3,361,141 COIN SORTING MACHINE Ernst Weisskopf, Philippshurg uber Bruchsal, Germany,

assignor to Standardwerk Eugen Reis G.m.b.H., Bruchsal, Baden, Germany, a limited company of Germany Filed Mar. 28, 1966, Ser. No. 537,865 Claims priority, application Germany, Apr. 3, 1965, ST 23,618 Claims. (Cl. 133-3) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A coin sorting machine in which coins are singled by moving them upward and out of a receptacle over an obliquely inclined surface by means of paired pins projecting from moving chains through slots in the surface, vertically oriented by dropping from the surface into shallow circumferential recesses of a rotating wheel and being carried to a vertical shaft tangential to the wheel, and sorted while coaxially aligned in stacked compartments by moving over a perforate plate, groups of the compartments being attached to respective links of a carrier chain and being supported during movement over the sorting plate by another chain.

This invention relates to coin sorting machines, and particularly to a machine which assorts coins according to diameter and/or thickness and provides an individual count of each sorted type of coin.

Conventional coin sorting machines are provided with devices which convert a multitude of randomly oriented coins into an orderly row of coins whose axes are spacedly parallel and whose faces lie in a common plane. The row of coins is guided over an apertured sorting plate or the like, and the coins drop into openings corresponding to their size, the smallest coins being sorted out first. The sorting plate in a machine of this type must have a length in the direction of coin movement at least equal to the combined diameters of the several types of coins which are to be separated from each other. When coins are to be sorted at a high rate, the speed of coin movement over the sorting plate is high enough to cause rapid wear, and the apparatus becomes quite bulky if enough different types of coins are to be sorted.

An object of the invention is the provision of a coin sorting machine in which the length of the sorting plate in the direction of coin travel is but a small fraction of the combined diameters of the several types of coins to be separated from each other.

Another object is the provision of a coin sorting machine in which the coins travel over a sorting plate at a speed which is but a small fraction of the speed of coin travel in a conventional sorting machine of equal capacity.

The invention is based in part on the fact that the axial thicknes of all coins is but a minor fraction of the coin diameter, and the invention thus. aims at providing a coin sorting machine in which the coins to be sorted travel over an apertured sorting plate while coaxially stacked and while standing on edge on the sorting plate.

In its more specific aspects, the invention contemplates the provision of a machine of the type described .whose casing has an obliquely inclined front wall formed with a coin receptacle and a feeding aperture. A conveying wheel mounted in the casing has several circumferentially offset coin receiving recesses which are sequentially aligned with the feeding aperture during rotation of the wheel. Provisions are made for transferring individual coins from the afore-mentioned receptacle in an obliquely upward direction over the front wall into the feeding aperture.

3,361,141 Patented Jan. 2, 1968 The upper orifice of a vertically extending shaft in the casing is positioned in the same for receiving coins from the recesses of the conveying wheel by gravity. A sorting wheel having a horizontal row of openings movably supports a plurality of compartments open in an upward and a downward direction which may be conveyed from a position subjacent the lower orifice of the store-mentioned shaft along the row of openings in the sorting plate which increase in size in the direction of compartment movement. Containers which respectively communicate with the openings in the sorting plate are downwardly offset from the asociated openings. Coins dropped from the shaft into the upwardly open cavities of the several compartments are thus dropped from these cavities into the containers according to their size.

Other objects, additional features, and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a coin sorting and containing machine of the invention in side elevation;

FIG. 2 illustrates the machine of FIG. 1 in front elevation;

FIG. 3 shows the machine in enlarged fragmentary section on the line IIIIII in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the same machine with the casing thereof partly broken away;

FIG. 5 shows a detail of the machine of FIG. 1 in enlarged plan view;.

FIG. 6 is an elevational sectional view of the device of FIG. 5 taken on the line VIVI;

FIG. 7 shows another detail of the same machine in plan view;

FIG. 8 illustrates a modification of the detail of FIG. 4;

FIG. 9 illustrates the device of FIG. '8 in fragmentary section on the line lX-IX; and

which is obliquely inclined in the illustrated normal operating position of the machine. An upwardly open metal shell on the front wall 1 forms a receptacle 2 for the coins to be sorted and counted. The lowermost portion of the shell adjacent the wall 1 formsa pocket 3 dimensioned conformingly to receive the largest coin which is to be handled by the machine.

Counters, not themselves shown in detail, are arranged in the machine casing in such a manner that their numbered Wheels can be seen through eight windows 5 to 12 in the casing side wall.

As is better seen in FIG. 2, a cylindrical brush 4 is mounted on the front wall 1 above the receptacle 2. Parallel, laterally spaced slots 13, 14 extend in the front wall 1 from the pocket 2 obliquely upward toward an aperture 15 in the front wall. The axis of the brush is transverse of the direction of elongation of the slots at an oblique angle. The brush is driven by an electric motor (not shown) mounted'in the casing which energizes all driven parts of the machine in a conventional manner, not further illustrated.

A pair of pins 16, 17 are guided in the slots 13, 14 in transverse alignment as will be explained in more detail hereinafter, and transfer coins 18 from the pocket 3 to the aperture 15. The direction of rotation of the brush 4 is such that it Wipes a coin transferred by the pins 16, 17 downward toward the receptacle 2. The height of the pins a is selected in such a manner that they project above the front wall 1 a distance not greater than the thickness of the thinnest coin to be handled so that no more than one coin 18 can be transferred by the pins 16, 17 past the brush 4.

As is shown in FIG. 3, a wheel 21 mounted in the easing rotates in a plane which includes the upward path of the coins transferred by pins 16, 19, 20 and the aperture 15. A stationary cover 26 which envelopes the wheel 21 has an opening under the aperture 15. Five circumferentially spaced shallow recesses in the wheel 21, of which only the four recesses 22 to 25 are visible in FIG. 3, are sequentially aligned with the aperture 15 while the wheel 21 is rotated by the afore-mentioned drive motor in a clockwise direction indicated by an arrow, the speeds of the wheel 21 and of the pins 16, 17, 19, 20 being coordinated in such a manner that an empty recess of the wheel is aligned with the aperture 15 whenever a coin is dropped by the pins into the aperture. The recesses are shaped to conform to the largest coin to be handled, but they hold even a small coin in a position in which its axis is approximately radial with respect to the wheel axis, because their radial depth is small as compared to their axial and circumferential dimensions.

A vertical shaft 27 in the cover 26 is approximately tangential to the circumference of the wheel 21 at a point thereof spaced 135 in the direction of wheel movement from the aperture 15, the cover 26 confining the coins in the respective recesses of the wheel 21 during movement from the aperture 15 to the shaft 27. The wheel 21 has a narrow circumferential groove 29 which communicates with each of the coin receiving recesses 22 to 25 and is deeper than the bottoms 48 of the recesses. A spring blade 28 attached to the stationary machine casing near the upper orifice of the shaft 27 extends into the groove 29 for dislodging any coin that may tend otherwise to stick to the bottom 48 of the associated recess.

A horizontal sorting plate 31 fixedly mounted in the machine casing in a manner not further shown has a row of openings which respectively lead into eight downward ducts 32 to 39, each duct terminating above an open container for collecting the sorted coins, only four containers 40 to 43 being seen in FIG. 3.

A series of compartments 30 which are upwardly and downwardly open extends on the sorting plate 31 from the lower orifice of the shaft 27 over the row of openings of the plate 31 for receiving the coins discharged from the shaft 27 in an upright position, and for holding them upright, that is, standing on edge on the top face of the plate 31, while they move with the compartments 30 over the row of openings in the plate in a manner more fully described hereinafter.

FIG. 4 shows the partly removed top face 1 of the casing and details of the transfer mechanism which takes coins individually from the receptacle 2 and drops them into the aperture 15 at intervals synchronized with the rotation of the wheel 21.

Sprockets 70, 71 mounted on the underside of the front wall 1 and driven in unison by the afore-mentioned electric motor, and non-illustrated idler sprockets guide two endless chains in respective paths partly parallel to the slots 13, 14, only the links 72 to 76 of one chain being seen in FIG. 4. Every fourth link on one side of each chain is laterally enlarged to form a bracket for a respective pin in the slots 13 or 14, five pairs 60-69 of such pins being illustrated in FIG. 4. The pins 64, 65 are illustrated in the process of transferring a coin 18 toward the aperture 15, while the wire brush 4 wipes the tops of the pins 66, 67 and stands ready to throw a coin superimposed on the coin 18 back into the receptacle 2.

The actuating mechanism for the compartments 30 is shown in more detail in FIGS. and 6. Link chains 81, 83 are trained over drive sprockets 84, 86 and idler sprockets 85, 87 in an arrangement closely similar to the drive of the afore-described transfer mechanism. Each link of the chain 81 is fixedly fastened to upright walls which form three compartments 30 and one side of a fourth compartment, the compartments being short in the direction of movement of the chain 81 which is upward in the view of FIG. 5, but is actually horizontal in the direction of the row of openings in the plate 31, not itself seen in FIG. 5.

The compartments 30 project from the associated links 80 of the carrier chain 81 transversely of the direction of movement, and their free ends are supported by the other chain 83 by means of engaging abutments 82, 88 on the supporting chain 83 and the compartments 30.

As is better seen in FIG. 6, the abutments 82 are the pivot pins of the supporting link chain 83 and have upper axial portions 89 which mesh with circumferential teeth 90 on a corresponding axial portion 91 of the drive sprocket 86, and similarly with the idler sprocket 87. The lower portion 96 of each pivot pin 82 engages a corresponding abutment 88 of the compartments 30 in a horizontal direction, the abutment 88 being vertically secured between the links of the chain 83. The drive sprocket 84 drivingly engages the links 80 of the chain 81 on which the compartments 30 are fixedly fastened.

The row of coin sorting openings in the plate 31 is connected by a longitudinal slot whose orifice walls 97 flare broadly in an upward direction so that the coins held individually in the compartments 30 slide along the flaring walls while being pushed by the walls of the compartments 30 which extend into the longitudinal slot of the plate 31. It will be understood that the narrowest portion of the slot is substantially narrower than the diameter of the smallest coin to be handled by the machine, and that the coins are held in the respective compartments on edge and face in the direction of compartment movement.

FIG. 6 also shows the detail structure of the ducts 32 to 39, as exemplified by the duct 32 which extends downward from the sorting plate 31. As better seen in FIG. 7, the ducts 32 to 35 are identical in cross section, and the ducts 36 to 39 also are identical, but shorter than the ducts 3235, when viewed in horizontal section. The effective width of each duct may be adjusted by means of a vertical guide rail 92 mounted in the duct 0n pins that may be shifted in slots and fastened in the adjusted position in a manner not illustrated in detail and conventional in itself. The guide rail 92 deflects a coin dropped into the duct 32 toward a duct wall from which the actuating member 93 of a microswitch 94 projects. The dropping coin thus actuates the microswitch which is an element of one of the afore-mentioned counters, not otherwise shown. The switch 94 advances the reading of the associated counter by one unit in the usual manner when actuated.

The eight actuating members 93 in the several ducts 32 to 39 and the associated switches 94 are better seen in FIG. 7 which also illustrates the eight containers 40 to 47 into which the sorted coins are dropped, the coins being sorted according to diameter by the connected openings of the plate 31, which increase in size in a direction from the right toward the left, as viewed in FIG. 7.

The mode of operation of the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 7 is evident from the preceding description. Coins are taken from the receptacle 2 by the pins 16, 17, 19, 28, 6069 which are elements of the transfer mechanism shown in FIG. 3. The brush 4 prevents more than one coin from being dropped into the aperture 15 while the aperture is aligned with one recess of the wheel 21. The coins are individually dropped from the wheel 21 into the upper orifice of the shaft 27. The compartments 30 are moved past the lower orifice of the shaft 27 in synchronization with the wheel 21 and the transfer mechanism so that only one coin is received in each compartment, and each compartment receives a coin if each pair of pins transfers a coin to the wheel 21. The coins in the compartments 30 form a stack of coins having a common horizontal axis, and stand on edge. The coins drop into an opening in the rail 31 large enough to accommodate their diameter. Since the openings in the rail increase in size in a direction away from the lower orifice of the shaft 27, the smallest coins are removed first to the container 47 through the duct 39, and are being counted by the associated microswitch, the count being displayed in one of the windows to 12.

FIG. 8 shows a modification of the transfer mechanism which moves coins from the receptacle 2 to the aperture 15. The modified mechanism is preferred if some of the coins to be sorted and counted are thin enough so that they may lodge in the slots 13, 14. One set of links of each pin carrying chain shown in FIG. 4 and the associated pins are replaced by small plates, only the plates 101 to 106 being shown in FIG. 6. The angularly olfset free terminal portions 107 to 112 of these plates remote from the associated other chain elements-and corresponding terminal portions 113 to 116 of other similar plates, not otherwise visible, extend into the slots 13, 14 to block the same over their entire length.

As is better seen in FIG. 9, three-fourths of the plates, as exemplified by the plate 102 and its angularly offset terminal portion 108, are entirely confined under the front wall 1 and recessed in the associated slot 13 or 14. Every fourth plate, as exemplified by the plate 106 and its angularly offset terminal portion 112, projects outward of the wall 1 a distance not greater than the thickness of the thinnest coin to be handled, so that the brush 4 may remove a second coin adhering to a coin being transferred by engagement with the projecting offset terminal portions such as the portion 112 in a manner entirely analogous to the mode of operation of the afore-described pins 16, 17, 19, 20, and 60 to 69.

As is shown in FIG. 3, the open top of each compartment 30 is slightly wider in the direction of compartment movement than the corresponding dimension of the lower orifice of the shaft 27 to avoid jamming of the machine if a coin is dropped through the shaft with a small delay and to compensate for other minor deviations from perfect synchronization. A similar effect is achieved in the modified detail shown in FIG. by upwardly tapering the walls 130 which separate the compartments 30. FIG. 10 also clearly shows that the orifices of the ducts 32 to 39 are wider in the direction of movement of the compartments 30 than the bottom openings of the latter for similarly preventing jamming.

Coins of adequate diameter, but undersized in the direction of their axis or thickness, are rejected through openings between the ducts 32 to 39, as is seen in FIGS. 3 and 10, which are too narrow to pass coins of proper thickness. The rejected coins thus separated from coins of proper diameter and thickness are jointly collected in the central bottom of the machine casing in a pan located between the containers 40 to 47, but not shown in the drawing.

The sorting plate 31 is passed by the coins while the same are stacked in the direction of their minimum dimension, namely their thickness. Although the illustrated and described sorting machine can sort coins having as many as eight different diameters, and can additionally reject coins of each selected diameter which are undersized in thickness, the sorting plate 31 is very short in the direction of coin travel. The coins travel very slowly over the plate, and the plate therefore has a long useful life.

The coins are stacked in the manner described because of the specific dimensional relationships of the machine elements and because of their orientation. The wheel 21 delivers the coins to the upper orifice of the duct 27 in a well defined position, and this position is maintained during downward dropping movement of the coins in the shaft. The lower orifice of the shaft is elongated trans versely to the direction of movement of the compartments 30, and the top and bottom openings of the latter are elongated similarly.

The synchronized drive of the coin sorting and counting machine is represented in the drawing only by sprockets driving conveying chains, but the shafts, gears, sprockets, chains and like motion transmitting elements which connect the illustrated portions of the synchronizing drive system with a single prime mover are too obvious to require pictorial representation.

Many variations of this invention other than those specifically illustrated and described will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. The microswitches 94 and the associated actuating members 93 may be replaced by aphotoelectric cell, a light source, and associated conventional circuitry which generates a counting pulse in response to an interruption of the beam of the light source by a coin dropping into one of the containers 40 to 47.

It should be understood, therefore, that the foregoing disclosure relates only to preferred embodiments of the invention, and that it is intended to cover all modifications and variations of the instant invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A coin sorting machine comprising, in combination:

(a) casing means having a normally obliquely inclined front wall formed with a coin receptacle and a feeding aperture;

(b) a conveying wheel formed with a plurality of circumferentially offset coin receiving recesses rotatably mounted in said casing means, said recesses being sequentially aligned in a downward direction with said aperture during said rotation of the wheel, each recess being radially open and having a radial dimension smaller than the circumferential and axial dimensions thereof;

(c) transfer means for transferring individual coins from said receptacle in an obliquely upward direction over said front wall into said aperture;

((1) means defining a normally vertically extending shaft in said casing, said shaft being substantially tangential to the circumference of said wheel and having an upper and a lower orifice, the upper orfiice being positioned for receiving coins from said recesses by gravity;

(e) a sorting plate formed with a horizontal row of openings therein, said openings increasing in size along said row from one end thereof toward the other;

(f) a plurality of compartment means open in an upward and downward direction and superimposed on said sorting plate;

(g) conveying means for moving said compartment means from a position subjacent the lower orifice of said shaft along said plate in a direction from said one end toward said other end of said row; and

(h) a plurality of container means respectively communicating with said openings of the sorting plate and downwardly offset from the associated openings.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1, counting means associated with each of said openings for counting coins dropping from said opening into the corresponding container means.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 2, wherein said front wall is formed with a pair of transversely spaced slots elongated in a direction from said receptacle toward said aperture, said transfer means including a plurality of transfer members partly received in each of said slots and projecting upward from said front wall, and drive means for moving transversely aligned pairs of said members in unison in the respective slots from said receptacle toward said aperture.

4. A machine as set forth in claim 3, the transfer members in each of said slots being spaced from each other in the direction of slot elongation, and blocking means recessed in the slots between longitudinally adjacent trans- 0 fer members connected to said drive means for longitudinal movement in the associated slots with said transfer members.

5. A machine as set forth in claim 3, wherein said transfer members project above said front wall over a predetermined height, and a rotary brush mounted on said front Wall for Wiping engagement with coins extending beyond the height of said pins.

6. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein said conveying wheel is formed with a circumferential groove therein, said groove communicating with said recesses, and dislodging means mounted on said casing adjacent the upper orifice of said shaft and partly received in said groove for dislodging coins from said recesses into said upper orifice when said recesses approach said upper orifice during rotation of said wheel.

7. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein each of said compartment means has two walls defining a cavity therebetween, said cavity being short in the direction of movement of said compartment means and wide and deep in directions perpendicular to the short dimension of said cavity, said conveying means including an endless carrying chain having a plurality of links respectively fastened to walls of said compartment means, and an endless supporting chain, said supporting chain and said Walls having respective abutment portions, and actuating means for moving said chains in parallel paths extending in the direction of said row while the abutment portions of said walls and of said supporting chain are engaged.

8. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein said orifices of said shaft are elongated, the direction of elongation of said upper orifice being axial with respect to said wheel, said lower orifice being elongated in a direction transverse of said row of openings, and the openings be ing elongated in said transverse direction and increasing in length from said one end toward said other end of the row.

9. A machine as set forth in claim 8, wherein each of said compartment means is substantially shorter in the direction of movement thereof than wide in said transverse direction.

it), A machine as set forth in claim 9, further comprising counting means associated with each of said openings for counting coins dropping from said opening into the corresponding container means, each counting means including an actuating member mounted subjacent the associated opening for engagement with a coin.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 634,506 10/1899 Scott 133--3 1,023,162 4/1912 McKaig 133-8 1,038,293 9/1912 Chiger 133-3 1,180,499 4/1916 Huntington.

1,210,622 1/1917 Fefell et al.

1,251,534 1/1918 Johnson 133-8 1,526,762 2/1925 Schwartz 133-3 1,849,318 3/1932 Schwartz 133-3 3,032,162 5/1962 Huckins 194-9 3,229,806 1/1966 Otto et al. 133-1 X SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner. 

